The final race was rescheduled from the previous weekend, and seven keen contestants turned up on Sunday morning to ideal racing conditions. The tide was high, the wind directly off the clubhouse shore, and a little stronger than most of the youngsters were used to! However undeterred, they all set off from the slipway, against the last of the flood tide, towards the racing area. The ODM was laid on the club line and well clear of the dredging barge, which is quite a scary obstacle from the lowly position of an Opti out sailing. The 5 minute gun saw the fleet scattered in many directions, but by the 1 minute P flag down, they were close to the line. On the start gun Isaac was just over, and had to recross, whilst Harrison and Kieran started neck and neck. A close fetch to the windward mark established the first three positions, with Isaac leading Kieran and Harrison. Grace and Ollie were a bit late starting, and Aman and Mackenzie followed. Places stayed the same to the leeward mark with Isaac rounding first and he chose to tack immediately after the mark. This gave both Kieran and Harrison the opportunity to sail out to the starboard side of the beat and take the lead off Isaac. Meanwhile both Grace and Ollie were having a fine battle in 4th and 5th position, and Aman and Mackenzie finding it hard work to beat upwind in the stronger conditions. Both Safety Boats did a wonderful job coaching the kids whenever they got into a pickle! Huge thanks to Mark Jones for turning up to help, meaning we could have two adults in each Patrol boat. Mackenzie earned Pirate of the Day for her first capsize, and you could see her smiling even from the shore. She got the Opti upright and bailed out and still finished the race – true Pirate stamina! Sailor of the day went to Kieran, who had the best start, and sailed the fastest race, despite Harrison nearly catching him on the finish line. Well done Harrison for sticking to your guns when the race committee said you had another lap, my mistake! If Ollie had been close to the start line he would have been in contention for the lead as he played catch-up all race, after his late start. The final results in the series of 7 races, with one discard, was as follows:- 1st Harrison Wills (10pts), 2nd Grace Munro (11pts), 3rd Mackenzie Wills (23pts), 4th Kieran Munro (26pts), 5th Eoghain Waldock (31pts), 6th = Cohen Laban & Ollie Smith (33pts), 8th Aman Devta (35pts). Well done to all who completed this first Junior Summer Series and all the adults who helped to make this possible. A great achievement for this small, upper harbour club. |
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